The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  I stared at her. Was she fucking serious?

  “You’re sorry for over stepping the line?” I scoffed angrily, “Jesus Christ Beaumont, you didn’t force me to fuck you.”

  She recoiled slightly and I cursed inwardly at my lack of sensitivity, “Shit, I didn’t mean it to sound that harsh.”

  “No.” She swallowed and pulled her shoulders back as she shook her head sternly, “It’s just that, I can’t do . . . that anymore. I have a job to do and if I’m . . . with you then I’m putting you at risk as I compromise your protection. I can’t do that Kade, I won’t do that!”

  “Is this you talking or the job?”

  She frowned but I noticed the flash of something in her eyes, denial maybe but she turned away, “Both.”

  I scoffed and shook my head, grabbing hold of her wrist before she could walk away any further. “Bullshit. I know you felt it. You felt me, just like I felt you. We connected, Grace Beaumont. We fit together damn fucking well. Your sweet little pussy was moulded for my dick, so don’t tell me you’re walking away from this because of something personal cos’ that’s bollocks!”

  She spun round to face me, her face tight with ire and passion and fuck, if my dick didn’t harden with the fire that took over her. The fight in her eyes heated my blood and I braced myself for what was to come. “We fucked, Kade. We didn’t feel anything, apart from sex.”

  I nodded slowly and pursed my lips, stepping into her but she stood her ground and looked slightly up at me, her own height putting her just a few inches under me. “Let me just explain something about me, Beaumont. I don’t do relationships, neither do I do romance or hearts and flowers. What I do, do is fuck; hard, avidly and fucking cruelly as you so delicately put it. I fuck women, I fuck men and now and then I fuck them both together and yesterday I fucked you. So yes, I agree, we just fucked but don’t deny that we fucked phenomenally cos’ that’s utter shit, sweetheart and you know it.”

  I watched the bob in her throat as she gulped profoundly. “Then let’s leave it at phenomenal before the spark dies out and we’re left with marginally great.”

  I barked out a sarcastic laugh when she pulled away as Mona walked into the hall with Grace’s phone. She held it up and from the look in her eye I could tell it wasn’t just a regular call. Grace shook her head rapidly but Mona shrugged, “He knows you’re here. He heard the two of you arguing.” She grimaced awkwardly as she disclosed that she had heard everything between us and I glanced at Grace, frowning at how pale she had become.

  “Hey, you okay?”

  She blinked hard and nodded, “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked slowly as I noticed the brace her body had taken on. She was rigid with tension and I could physically feel her bitterness.

  “Yes!” She barked as she stormed across the room, whipped the phone out of Mona’s hand and disappeared into a room under the staircase.

  “What’s in there?” I asked Mona as we both watched the door close with a slam.

  “Cloakroom.”

  She didn’t offer anything more and I rolled my eyes at her furtiveness. “And . . .”

  Her brow creased and she looked at me in confusion as I released a huff of frustration. “Is everybody here in a conspiracy? Who was on the phone?”

  I watched as her eyes scanned me slowly, her head tipped to the side slightly as she exhibited a look of contempt and disapproval. Her lip sneered with obvious disgust and I quirked a brow at her, “I am quite positive that whoever is on the phone wanted Grace, not you. So therefore, that’s Grace’s business, not yours Mr Hamilton.”

  I squinted at her but she held my gaze with quite a frosty one of her own. “I’m sure you liked me when I arrived.”

  She scoffed loudly and then turned back towards the kitchen. “I did, Mr Hamilton. Then you got too forward with Grace and way to nosey for your own good,” she stated as she continued on her way and disappeared.

  Okay.

  * * *

  God, I was bored stiff. Being trapped in a house, fair dos an extra-large one, wasn’t as much fun as it sounded, even if I was trapped in alongside a body made for sex.

  Every time I looked at Grace I wanted to rip off her clothes, part her legs and sink deep inside her. It was like she was taunting me every time she walked past, each time her face lit with her laughter at something Mona or I had said or the way her beauty amplified when her stunning smile appeared. Her unique scent of something floral and something muskily sexy was driving me crazy, the aroma billowing around her and filling the air with a reminder of how amazing her soft skin tasted.

  I sat at the kitchen table watching her move around the room. She seemed to glide. She didn’t walk, she floated.

  I rolled my eyes at my thoughts, I was becoming a pussy as far as Grace was concerned and I tutted too loudly, making the women turn to look at me. “You okay?” Grace asked and I shrugged.

  “Bored.”

  She nodded and then screwed up her eyes as if debating something. “You fancy coming to pick a tree?”

  Both Mona and I were out of our seats like kids on Christmas morning, both of us nodding excitedly as Grace laughed happily. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  We both nodded eagerly but she turned to me with quite a serious expression. “You stay by my side and promise me, if anything kicks off you’ll do as you’re told.”

  I nodded firmly and saluted her, “Promise, Boss.”

  She smiled and shook her head, “You’re learning.”

  * * *

  “You are joking, it’s way too scrawny” I grumbled as Grace stood beside me looking lovingly at an undernourished and scraggy fir tree.

  “Ssshhh, you’ll hurt his feelings”

  I stared at her with my tongue in my cheek to hold back my retort but I softened when she reached out and took a few leaves in-between her fingers and rubbed lightly. She smiled, more to herself than to Mona and me as she tipped her head and nodded, “Perfect, he will make an excellent one.”

  Mona smiled also and Grace turned to her with a huge grin. “He taught you well, pet.”

  “Who did?” I asked as I looked up to the sky when a few flakes of snow fluttered to the ground.

  “My dad,” Grace said with a smile. “If you rub the needles and they are still a little waxy and don’t fall off in your hand, then he will be a good one.”

  “Ahh,” I returned her smile as she granted me with one of her cheery grins. Her eyes were sad though and something inside me shifted with the melancholy she exposed. “How old were you when he died?”

  She sighed and stared into the distance, “Fourteen.”

  “So Marcus was . . . ?”

  “Five . . . just five.”

  I watched a frown develop on her face as her eyes narrowed and I wondered if she was fourteen again in her mind.

  “And Will?” I pressed as I tried to prise any information I could from her but I frowned when she seemed oblivious to my last question and her head rotated a touch as though she was listening for something. Her whole body locked down, her feet shuffling apart marginally as a faint current of electricity crackled from her and I watched in trepidation, noticing the tiny hairs on the back of her hand stand to attention as she moved it very slowly behind her and settled it on the gun that was tucked in the back of her jeans.

  “I want you both to very slowly crouch down and make your way to the entrance. You stay together, you go into the site office and you wait there for me.” There was a no nonsense tone to her voice but she remained completely focused on something her eyes had located.

  “I’m not leaving you.” Mona whispered as she started to bend her legs and lower herself to the ground.

  “Do it!” Grace hissed as she drew her gun and held it to her lap with both hands. “Get down Kade!” she said slowly without moving her head or her lips.

  “Beaumont, I really don’t . . .”

  The poor scrawny tree that Grace had fell in love with exploded into tiny pieces as a gun
shot tore through the air and sent the birds into a wild frenzy, scattering them noisily across the skies and dragging along others in their terror. “GO!” She screamed before she moved fluidly and quickly into the wooded area in front of us, stealthily shifting from tree to tree as she used them as shields.

  I grabbed Mona’s hand and pulled her towards the office as Grace had told us but she stumbled when the quiet was suddenly disrupted by a volley of piercing gunfire.

  “GRACE!” Mona screamed but I continued to pull her, bringing her in front of me protectively as I pushed us both closer to the office. More shots sounded and I swallowed the bile as I tried to take a glance behind me, frantically searching the area for Grace but I tripped over a tree root and hissed as my ankle twisted painfully.

  “Fuck!” I grabbed hold of it, studying it with a squint as I tried to determine whether it was broken. “Damn.”

  I looked up for Mona. My lungs tightened, my blood froze and my gut constricted in fear as I came face to face with the muzzle of a gun.

  I couldn’t voice the words that were scurrying around my head and I grimaced when all that came out was a whimper.

  “Get up and turn around.”

  My mouth opened and closed but all I could manage was another bleat and a shrug. “Do it!” I nodded briskly as I fumbled around on my hands and knees and managed to push myself upright, stumbling as I did so when my ankle screamed with the pressure. “Turn around.”

  I turned slowly, shuffling on one foot as I fought to ease the load on my ankle. The whole area had gone silent and I wondered if it was God’s final wave of peace before I was welcomed into the dark stormy depths of hell.

  “I really don’t like shooting people in the back but with you, I’m afraid it’s going to be necessary.”

  “Why?” I managed to ask weakly as I stalled for time, making a last ditch attempt to drag out another breath before my lungs became redundant.

  “You really are quite stupid aren’t you!”

  I nodded as I closed my eyes and waited for the end. Grace’s smile eased my nerves as her beautiful face swan behind my eyes. God, she really was quite exquisite and I shivered at the thought of never seeing her again.

  “Any last words?”

  “No” I answered as a calm aura enveloped me. There really wasn’t anyone or anything in my life that required my last words and I pulled in a heavy breath when I heard a gunshot shatter my eardrums.

  I hadn’t been on the receiving end of the bullet and I spun round to see what was happening. I gasped as Mona fell to her knees and grabbed at the back of her knee. She wasn’t giving up though as she raised her pistol to me once more, her eyes fixed on mine with determination as I looked straight down the barrel of her gun.

  Her eyes widened and blood trickled from her open mouth before she fell forwards and exposed a hole in the back of her head, her white hair quickly turning red as blood seeped everywhere.

  A scream tore through the silence and I closed my eyes sadly as running footsteps grew nearer.

  “No, no, no, no. . . .” Grace sobbed as she skidded to her knees and pulled Mona onto her lap and palmed her pale face lovingly. “NO!”

  She suddenly dropped Mona to the ground and shot upright, her gun pointed to the Asian guy who had killed her nanny as her face distorted with fury.

  “Beaumont, put it down” he told her calmly but I watched with anguish as her shoulders heaved and her hands shook.

  “You killed her, Jamal. What the fuck do you expect, a pat on the back?” Her voice was steely quiet but there was no mistaking the vehemence in it. “YOU FUCKING KILLED HER!” She screamed as she took a step closer to him.

  He lifted his hands steadily, his palms open and held out gently to soothe her. “Yes, I did.”

  Grace’s whole body was trembling now and I inched forward ready but she growled loudly, her anger shivering like a mist around the three of us. “If you want to live Kade, you stay the fuck where you are.”

  I halted but I remained ready and alert. “Why?” she stuttered to Jamal but he tipped his head sadly as he secured her gaze. I knew he was one of Grace’s colleagues from the expertise and intelligence he held her with, his body held firm and showing no amount of fear whilst he comforted her with his eyes.

  “You know why, Grace. You even suspected it.”

  “No!” she denied furiously as her head shook briskly.

  “Yes, you did,” he reiterated slowly. “Liam found her connection to Baxter, Beaumont. She’s been his bloody right hand woman for years. Now put your gun down and let me hold that damn frigid body of yours while you give in.”

  “No!” It was choked and I stepped forward to catch her when her legs finally gave way and she crumbled to the floor.

  “Get off me!” she screamed as her whole body gave in and she punched me repeatedly, turning into me at the same time as she begged me to hold her.

  “Let it out, sweetheart” I whispered in her ear as her distraught sobs tore through me and her arms clung to me tightly, her hands frantically fisting tightly to the back of my coat. The intensity and grief she cried with was so overpowering, I could feel each of her tears pierce my soul with their acidity, burning into me and scarring me deeply. The heartache in her was completely engulfing and every single one of her devastated whimpers touched something inside me, ripping me apart slowly from the inside out but I held on, held onto her for dear life as I tried to take it from her and appease the despair inside her.

  Jamal gave me a small nod as he turned and pulled his phone from his pocket and my eyes dropped to Mona. What the hell was happening here? What the hell had happened here?

  It was all crazy and a shiver racked through me. Who we’re we dealing with if he could make an old woman turn on the only family she’d had for the last thirty odd years?

  Chapter Twelve

  Grace

  “YOU’RE LYING!”

  Jamal sighed angrily and slammed the file on the desk in front of me. “God damn it, Grace. Why the fuck would we all lie?”

  “I don’t know, but I know you’re lying.”

  He shook his head in frustration, his hand pushing back his floppy hair from his face with his annoyance and held out his phone. “Fine, ring Liam then.”

  I chewed desperately on my lip as the last six hours dragged at my spirit and I repeatedly swallowed back the vomit that wanted to be liberated. “But . . . it just doesn’t make any sense. Are you positive?”

  He tipped his head as he lifted a brow at me, “You really think Liam would send me up here, with actual evidence in the file, if he wasn’t sure? Even you know him better than that Grace.”

  I ran my tongue across my teeth and shook my head in disbelief again. None of this made sense and I pinched the bridge of my nose to stimulate my brain. “But. . . .” I couldn’t seem to find the right questions to ask or the right words to voice as my brain continued to frazzle with all the information and my heart ached for Mona.

  Why would she do that? Why would she try and kill Kade? She didn’t even know him, and there was no way she would ever hurt me. I was like a daughter to her.

  “You want me to stay?” Jamal asked, pulling me from my sombre thoughts as he crouched before me and took my hand.

  I looked at him and smiled gently as I shook my head, “No, get back to Samira. I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

  I shook my head again and rubbed my hands over my face to wake me from the weariness that was threatening to overtake me. He patted my knee before he stood up but he paused at the door and turned back to me, “You know what Liam said, Grace. Heed it, please. You are too involved in this. Concentrate on Hamilton’s protection and leave Will to Liam.”

  I nodded, “Yeah.”

  He smiled and winked before he pulled the door shut.

  I stared at it for a while before a cruel smirk lifted my lips. “Not a fucking chance!” I whispered as I flicked on the computer and logged into the bureau’s homep
age, entering Liam’s master password, the one he didn’t know I was aware of. I knew it would alert him if I was logged in for more than seven minutes but right then, I didn’t give a camel’s left shitty toe and I drew in a breath when the customary desktop to my sectional division popped up.

  Working quickly, I manoeuvred through all the separate procedures and private log in screens until I was in Liam’s personal database and then retrieved all his recent operations. Will’s name jumped out from one of the files and I inserted the USB into the drive and started to download, my eyes shifting to the small clock in the corner of the monitor as my eyes carefully watched the time, my nerves hurrying the damn thing on.

  Four minutes remaining.

  “Come on!” I muttered as the door opened and Kade stood watching me with narrow eyes and his arms crossed across his chest

  “What the fuck is going on, Grace? You’ve been in here all day and now Jamal’s buggered off and told me not to leave your side.”

  “Nothing!” I snapped as I flicked another glance.

  Two minutes remaining.

  He stalked over to me, his lean fluid body leaning around the desk to peer at the monitor but I stood in front of it, blocking his view as he scowled at me.

  “Tell me.”

  “No, this doesn’t concern you, back off.”

  “No!” he said stubbornly as he tried to move my body so he could see what I was doing.

  I drew my gun on him and he stilled immediately, “What the hell?” His eyes were wide and I scoffed at the small amount of fear in them.

  “Do—not—fuck—with—me, Kade!”

  “Okay, let’s just calm down, sweetheart. I’m just concerned, that’s all. I know whatever you are doing on that PC is going to get you into a shit load of crap and I’m worried about you.”

  “Whatever I am doing on that PC is going to feed me the crap I need to take out . . .” I grit my teeth and stared at his confused expression. “To finish what I need finishing.”

  His tongue swept out to wet his dry lips but his eyes never left my gun. “What the hell is wrong with people today? That’s twice I’ve been looking at one of those.” He reached out and took it from me and placed it on the desk when I lowered my eyes to the PC, “But at least I know you won’t actually shoot me.”